The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook; Community Solutions to a Global Crisis, by Greg Pahl.

In this excerpt, the problem of fossil-fueled energy is summarized, as are many renewably-sourced solutions. Pahl makes a point of distinguishing large, corporate renewable energy installations from community-scaled, community-supported models. Even in progressive, environmentally-attuned places like Vermont, towns can find good reasons to oppose sustainable energy projects that are out of scale with their needs.

Pahl says,

“Donâ€™t get me wrong, given the choice between a large, corporate-owned coal-fired power plant or a large, corporate-owned wind farm, the obvious choice is the wind farm, regardless of who owns it. And…there is no question that large companies are going to have a role to play. But thatâ€™s no reason to exclude smaller…community projects that are far more effective in promoting distributed-generation strategies.”

Read the entire excerpt from Chapter 8: The Community Solution.

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